The Daily Dow
Thursday, May 22, 1997
by Robert Sheard (TMF Sheard)

LEXINGTON, KY. (May 22, 1997) -- There's been much gnashing of teeth about the Foolish Four's lagging performance this year, and justifiably so. The stock in the prized and double-weighted position, AT&T <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: T)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: T)") end if %>, has been getting hammered for months. In fact, it's the worst performing Dow stock so far in 1997.

But are its fortunes turning? AT&T hit its recent low price of $30 7/8 just about a month ago, on April 24. Since then, however, the stock has begun climbing again, trading above $35 today. Sure, that's still some 15% below where the stock opened the year, but in the last month it's recovered more than 13%. (And for those of you with a chartist inclination, sacrilege though it may be here in Fooldom, AT&T has even climbed above its 50-day moving average.)

There's no way of telling for sure if the worst is over for Ma Bell, of course. It's shown brief recovery spurts in the past, only to fall even further in ensuing weeks. If this is the end of the pain, though, it will have followed a pattern fairly typical of a stock in the Foolish Four. When the stock began plummeting, it got closer and closer to the high-yield list. Some of you undoubtedly bought it even before our year-end update in this model, and thus, are sitting on a bigger loss than the one we show, but the principle remains the same: you bought the stock when it was out of favor (and perhaps getting more so) and now you're holding it until it has had time to right itself and recover.

It requires patience and discipline to sit through the ugly patches at times, especially in a stock you may have doubled, but the discipline is usually rewarded quite handsomely.

No promises that the future is now for AT&T, but watching it recover in recent days is always a source of encouragement. Folly forever!

(c) Copyright 1997, The Motley Fool. All rights reserved. This material is for personal use only. Republication and redissemination, including posting to news groups, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of The Motley Fool. ________________________________

Stock  Change   Last
--------------------
T    +   3/4   35.38
GM   ---       56.75
CHV  -   5/8   69.50
MMM  -   5/8   90.25

               Day   Month    Year
        FOOL-4   +0.39%   2.97%  -1.65%
        DJIA     -0.45%   3.55%  12.56%
        S&P 500  -0.44%   4.28%  12.81%
        NASDAQ   -0.08%   8.87%   6.32%

    Rec'd   #  Security     In At       Now    Change
   1/2/97  120 3M            83.00     90.25     8.73%
   1/2/97  153 Chevron       65.00     69.50     6.92%
   1/2/97  179 Gen. Motor    55.75     56.75     1.79%
   1/2/97  479 AT&T          41.75     35.38   -15.27%


    Rec'd   #  Security     In At     Value    Change
   1/2/97  120 3M          9960.00  10830.00   $870.00
   1/2/97  153 Chevron     9945.00  10633.50   $688.50
   1/2/97  179 Gen. Motor  9979.25  10158.25   $179.00
   1/2/97  479 AT&T       19998.25  16944.63 -$3053.63


                             CASH    $609.53
                            TOTAL  $49175.91